Columbus Public Library, Columbus, Nebraska


Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the Columbus Library Board And the Platte County Library Advisory Board September 8, 2005 The regularly scheduled quarterly meeting of the Columbus Library Board and the Platte County Library Advisory Board was called to order by the President, Jerry Jirka, at 4:30 PM on Thursday, September 8, 2005. Other members of the Library Board present were Jim Schaefer, Lynne Rambour, Craig Neid, and Carol Keller. Members of the Platte County Library Advisory Board present were Carol Rosendahl, Clayton Brunt, and Carolyn Rohde. Robert Trautwein, Library Director, was also present. . Notice of this meeting was given in advance with a copy of the agenda posted at City Hall, the County Court House and in the Public Library. All proceedings hereafter shown were taken while the convened meeting was open to the public. President Jirka welcomed Carol Keller to the Library Board. Mrs. Keller is replacing Jolaine Nielsen, a recent retiree from the Board. The minutes of the August Board meeting were reviewed and allowed to stand as presented with a motion from Jim Schaeffer and a second from Lynne Rambour The motion passed by voice vote. The Library Director distributed the September financial reports for the City Library, and the Columbus Library Foundation. Trautwein noted that it is final month of the city’s 2004-05 fiscal year. The statement does not include the August postings under “revenue” and under “salaries”. A motion was made by …… The financial statement for Platte County Library Services was distributed.. A motion was made by Craig Neid and seconded by Lynne Rambour to accept the City Library’s financial report. This motion passed by roll call vote: Jirka-aye, Neid-aye, and Rambour-aye The Director reviewed his reports for August. There were no committee reports. Under Correspondence, Brad Hruska, the Children’s Librarian, reviewed the activities of the Library’s “Summer Reading Program”. He noted that there are currently 905 children enrolled in the Library’s program and over 500 on the bookmobile. Hruska said that one reason for this large increase in numbers is that the public school’s “migrant worker program” has incorporated the Library’s “Summer Reading Program” into its schedule of activities. Trautwein noted that several times a week, three of the schools large white vans park near the library and unload dozens of children who attend the Library’s program. Hruska said that the program ends on July 28th with an ice cream social. During this social, Mr. Hruska will battle a dragon. The dragon is currently being made by the Columbus Art Gallery staff. Trautwein said that the book bags have added a new dimension to the summer reading program. Children are encouraged to reuse last year’s bag. Each bag that is returned from last year gets a “dragon” badge sewn on it. Next year, he hopes to have a different badge—one about the “pet” theme. Children who return with the first year bag will then have two badges sewn on their bags. Under Old Business, Trautwein reported that Larry Nagorski, the bookmobile driver, is planning to retire at the end of the school year, around May 30th. He would like to continue driving on a part-time—20-hour-a-week basis. Trautwein said that around the middle of April, he will begin working with the city’s “Human Resource Director” to hire a second part-time driver. Regarding the revenues from a Library Foundation-funded coffee machine, Trautwein said that he had requested clarification from the City Attorney and he shared with the Board the attorney’s response. According to the attorney, if the Foundation is supplying the machine and the ingredients, the Foundation is entitled to receive the revenue. Trautwein said that he had not visited with other vending-machine companies as he had been waiting for a response back from the City Attorney. Now that he has that response, he will visit with the vendors and determine which machine to lease. Under New Business, Trautwein distributed a memo to members of the Board regarding the developing problem of long-overdue library materials. He explained that as soon as a patron has an overdue, the staff begins phoning the patron. After 3 or 4 telephone calls, and a month has lapse since the items were due, a bill is sent. Sometimes a second bill is sent. For the past year, around $7,000 in library materials have been checked out but not returned. One avenue to retrieving some of these long-overdue materials is to contract with a collections company. The local company is ARL Credit Services. Trautwein said that he has visited with the owner of this company, Richard Jablonski, and learned that the city is already using the company to collect overdue water bills and ambulance bills. Following a discussion of the pros and cons of resorting to a collections agency, a motion was made by Jim Schaefer to direct the Library Director enter into a contract with ARL Credit Services to assist in the recover of the Library’s long overdue materials. This motion was seconded by Jolaine Nielsen and passed by a voice vote: Neid-aye, Nielsen-aye and Schaefer-aye. Regarding the question of patrons who want to continue to check out materials after the Library has had to pay the ARL fees to recover the materials or the cost of the materials, Trautwein said that he would draft a policy for the Library Board to consider at the next meeting. This policy would stipulate that those patrons, who have had long outstanding bills that were collected only after a collection agency became involved , would have a one-year period when the could use the library but not check out any materials. There being no further business, the president called the meeting adjourned..